Mary Ellen Mazey, the President of Bowling Green State University, recently contributed an op-ed to the Toledo Blade. The op-ed is titled “Affordable Higher Education Is Key to Ohio’s Future.” In the op-ed, President Mazey addresses several realities that have been repeatedly highlighted over the last quarter century—that is, for as long as I have…
This past week, an Egyptian court sentenced to death former president Mohammed Morsi, along with 130 other defendants, for their participation in a mass jailbreak and their roles in subsequent attacks on the police and the military that led to the overthrow of the government of Hosni Mubarek. This sentence comes on the heels of…
New Jersey Policy Perspective has released a new report that links decreased state support of public higher education and falling wages to increased student-loan debt: “New Jersey students and families continue to have a hard time affording the high cost of a college education, thanks to lackluster state support for public colleges and universities. New…
By Andrew Scheinman A few weeks ago, the AAUP released its Report on the Steven Salaita affair at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), in which it concluded that UIUC and its Chancellor Phyllis Wise violated Salaita’s academic freedom and committed serious breaches of governance when they “un-hired” Salaita by Wise’s not forwarding his hire…
Those who insist that “Deflategate” as a news story of national importance. Those who speculate with any level of seriousness whether it is possible that George Zimmerman may be simply a victim of repeated ill will or bad luck. Those who wonder out loud whether Bruce Jenner’s coming out as transgender means that he will…
Mrs. Obama’s commencement address has drawn criticism from the Far Right because she focused on the ways in which she, as First Lady, has been racially caricatured by not just her husband’s political opponents but by even the “mainstream” media. Once again, an attempt to focus much-needed attention on what should be fairly obvious and…
In a column last week Los Angeles Times op-ed writer Michael Hiltzik (whose work is almost always a must-read) exposed the fraud behind the latest assault on the political activity of teacher unions. It involves a lawsuit, Bain v. California Teachers Association et. al, which purports to defend the “free speech” rights of its plaintiffs,…
On January 30, I posted an item to this blog under the title “The Troubling Case of Professor Stephen Cohen and the American Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies.” The post recounted the background to a decision by the Association’s Board to reject an offer by Professor Stephen F. Cohen, his wife, Katrina vanden…
From the Conclusions of the report, “Academic Freedom and Tenure: Felician College (New Jersey)”, May, 2015: In terminating the appointments of sixteen fulltime faculty members, seven of whom sought the Association’s assistance, the administration of Felician College attributed its action simply to “the exigency of the college’s financial status” without any further explanation. The administration’s…